Can open access help SDG research achieve greater impact?
Author: Nicola Jones
Director, Springer Nature SDG Programme
For researchers working on the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), progress depends on research reaching beyond academia – policymakers, businesses, educators, and the public – to translate findings into action.
A recent Springer Nature report, From publications to policy, explored how SDG-aligned research is cited in policy documents worldwide, analysing who uses it, where, and how publication choices – such as access model or journal selectivity –influence its uptake. In this blog, we explore one key finding: how open access (OA) can expand the visibility, reach, and policy engagement of your work.
Open access and the SDGs
When you publish open access, your research is available to anyone, anywhere. Where your work is aligned with global development priorities, that reach matters even more.
Open access continues to grow across Springer Nature’s portfolio. In 2024, over 50% of our primary research – 240k articles – was open access, expanding the global pool of knowledge for everyone.
SDG-related publications are even more likely to be open access: 58% of all Springer Nature’s SDG-related articles were published OA in 2024. This reflects a strong alignment between open dissemination and global development priorities: removing barriers supports the UN’s 2030 agenda by ensuring that knowledge essential to sustainable development is accessible, reusable, and actionable.
What impact does open access have on SDG research for policymaking?
The impact of making more SDG-related research OA has been explored in previous research, finding that it can achieve higher usage and attention, compared with non-OA research, and that it attracts more non-academic attention, helping to boost real-world impact. In our new SDG impact report, we explored this from a policy perspective – how does OA publication influence the way SDG research is used in policymaking?
1. Open access widens availability for policymaking
The report mapped the access status of scholarly research cited by SDG-related policy documents. Although patterns vary by country, in several – including Argentina, Brazil, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa – OA research accounts for more than 55-60% of SDG research policy citations.
This trend is consistent with OA usage patterns across our journals, where OA enables greater access to knowledge in countries where availability can be limited. In 2024, downloads of OA content from Low- and Middle-Income Countries increased by 21%. Open dissemination can broaden the potential audience for research relevant to global challenges.
Open access also broadens dissemination to readers outside well-resourced academic systems. The report identified the key role think tanks, NGOs, and IGOs play as users of academic research in policy documents. Publishing OA facilitates their ability to engage with and translate research into policy recommendations.
2. Policymakers often use open access research faster
With the SDGs addressing fast-moving challenges, speed of access matters. We found evidence that open access reaches policy faster, with a shorter median time to first citation (501 days), compared to 817 days for non-OA articles.
3. Open access is more frequently cited in policy
The report also showed that open access articles were more likely to receive at least one policy citation and, on average, a higher number of citations per article compared with non-OA articles. It’s worth noting that the distribution is highly skewed, and there is a long-tail pattern of policy influence.
Publishing your SDG-related work open access
Together, these findings indicate that when your research supports the SDGs, considering how it is shared may be as important as where it is published.
Open access can deliver a multiplier effect, increasing discoverability, broadening readership, and speeding up transfer into policymaking. It becomes immediately accessible to a broader range of readers geographically and reaches wider non-academic audiences who can translate evidence into policy.
If you are working on SDG-related research, OA can help increase the likelihood it is discovered, read, and cited beyond academia.
Springer Nature supports many routes for you to publish OA, across over 3k journals and a growing OA books portfolio. We work with institutions
worldwide to establish centralised funding for OA, such as our transformative agreements which now support researchers at over 3,700 institutions worldwide. Choosing an inclusive journal – which often emphasise open practices and multidisciplinary collaboration – can also help facilitate the transfer of your research into policy. Our report found that inclusive journals, such as the Discover series, receive slightly more SDG policy citations than comparative selective journal articles.
Our journal editors are keen to make sure that SDG relevant research reaches those best placed to implement it.
“Most of the content we publish in BMC Public Health aligns with SDG 3, but also with SDG 4, SDG 2, SDG 16, SDG 5 and SDG 10, often providing interdisciplinary insights. We really value these studies, as they address urgent global challenges and aim to improve health, reduce inequality and shape public health policy and practice.
We are proud to publish SDG‑related research open access, as this means that anyone, anywhere, can access it, increasing the likelihood of collaboration across countries and communities. As Editors, we are always keen to see the research we publish making a difference in real life, beyond the academic setting.”
Lorena Verduci, PhD, Senior Editor, BMC Public Health
To explore more findings on how research informs policymaking, read the full SDG impact report
Related content:
- How SDG research drives policy: A special report
- Open access books: Making SDG research impactful
- The SDG Book Series: Interdisciplinary, policy-relevant research
- Publish OA, support the SDGs: Make your research impactful
- Navigating open access article processing charges: A guide for researchers
- Navigating open access book publishing with the OAPEN Toolkit
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Author: Nicola Jones
Director, Springer Nature SDG Programme
Nicola is responsible for coordinating the publishing activity across Springer Nature where it relates to the UN SDGs, with the aim of bringing research that has the potential to help achieve the Goals to the attention of those best placed to implement it. In order to do this, she works with the editors and publishers across Springer Nature’s journals, books and other products and across all relevant disciplines to ensure that the approach is joined up, information is shared across departments and that all relevant colleagues are engaged with the programme. Nicola is passionate about the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration for solving complex global problems, and the need for solid research evidence to inform policy and practice.
Further reading
